Mom discovers screaming son left alone in Chesterfield daycare

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Police and the Department of Social Services are investigating after a child was left behind when his daycare closed and the daycare workers left for the day. When the two-year-old boy's mother arrived at Faith of Life Learning Center on Belmont Road Tuesday evening, there were no cars in the parking lot.

"I go up to the door. I’m ringing the bell. No one is coming. No one is answering," the woman, who asked her name not be used in the story, said.

The mother said she immediately called police with the thought that someone had taken her child. Soon, she said, she heard a child's screams. When she went around back to the playground area, she did not see any children. It was then, she looked in a window at the center.

"I get all the way to last window and there’s my son in the classroom by himself, screaming and crying," she said.

Child looks outside the window from inside Faith of Life Learning Center (PHOTO: family photo)

When police arrived they said they would break a window to reunite the mother and child. One of the officers then noticed a side door to the daycare was left unlocked.

"Anyone could have walked in," the mother said.

The daycare's owner arrived and spoke to the mother and police. The mother said the owner was unable to provide her with answers. No one at the daycare would comment on the situation when reached by phone.

"There are so many holes in the procedures and policies that a child has been left behind. I would like her to take this wake-up call seriously. This should never have happened," the mother said. "It could have easily gotten to the point where I never could have seen my son again."

No charges have been filed in this case. The mother, who said her son started at the daycare just two weeks ago, said he would never return there and may never go to another daycare again. Previous inspections of Faith of Life Learning Center conducted in February and November 2014 uncovered some Department of Social Services violations.